Items That Have Been A Revelation on Your Hi-fi Journey

[walpurgis]

Dunno about R2R, but does anybody still use MiniDisc?

I have a Pioneer MJ-D707 MiniDisc deck that gets used only occasionally, but the quality of recordings made with it really is remarkably good. I was astonished when I bought it (just out of curiosity), as I'd really dismissed MD as not being a serious format, having only heard it via Midi Systems and the like.

If I record onto MD from my Meridian/Monarchy Audio CD setup, the playback quality is virtually the same as the original CD and on my system, that means extremely good.

[Neil McCauley]

true, he was never interested in playing the game. magazines are only really interested in companies who advertise in them.

Apparently, the lack of advertising isn't the primary reason in LFD's case. The implication, as I understand it (and you have alluded to this above) is the UK press don't want to puncture the comfort zone that some brands enjoy i.e 'the game'.

From time to time he scores reviews in the USA where despite the competition being far stronger than in the UK, the editorial policy of their magazines appears to him to be more enlightened / fairer and .... he doesn't advertise there either. Meanwhile http://www.lfd-audio.co.uk/

[Barry]

My first epiphany was at the age of about 15. Until then all the "hi-fi" systems I had heard had been used to replay classical music, and I naively (and stupidly) thought that was the only type of music you could play on these systems. Imagine my surprise and delight when upon walking into a hi-fi shop (they weren't called "dealers" then) and hearing the Beatles' 'Norwegian Wood' being played through a Radford amp and (I think) Tannoy speakers and sounding wonderful! Of course I couldn't afford any of it at the time, but it did start me off on my journey.

So to the few items that have been a revelation (most of which I now own):

Quad ESL (57) speakers, original and unmolested.
The second set speakers I used and will most likely be my last. Not perfect by any means, but I am happy to live with their shortcomings for their speed, transparency and lack of colouration.

Decca cartridges.
Having learnt that Deccas need to be pampered and that until recently there was enormous sample-to-sample variation, a Decca of one sort or another has been a permanent fixture on one of my TTs. The speed, air, attack, dynamics and sheer presence are to die for. Again not perfect, but I always have one set up for comparison with other cartridges.

Sony and Nakamichi cassette machines.
I can't remember the exact model, but I bought my first cassette machine to replace the cumbersome Ferrograph 632 reel-to-reel machine I had been using until then. Again imagine my surprise to find that I could make equally good recordings on 1/8" tape at 1 7/8ips using the Sony, as I could on 1/4" wide tape at 7 1/2ips on the Ferrograph. After a couple of years the Sony was replaced by a couple of Nakamichi machines with even better performance.

The Electrocompaniet 'The Two Channel Power Amplifier'
A Norwegian realisation of the 25w/channel design by Otala and Loestrom, published in the Journal of Audio Engineering. Looked awful, was unrelable, but sounded wonderful into Quad ESLs. A bit of a shock to me compared to the original (and un-modified) Quad 405 I was using at the time; so sweet and dare I say it - musical.

ADC 25 and 10E Mk. IV cartridges
The first fixed-coil cartridges to break the Shure hegemony. I had been using Shure designs for four to five years, starting with the M3D and then moving my way up through the M55E, M75ED, V15 II (improved) and V15 III, before I discovered there were other designs out there that were better. The Decca Mk. VI and the ADC 10E were the first, shortly followed by the Ortofon moving coil designs.

Ortofon SL15E and SL15E Mk. II
Used with the somewhat limiting in-line transformer; since few preamps then had provision for moving coil cartridges, these were the first taste of what moving-coils could bring to the party. And I liked what I heard - again not perfect but they somehow seemed to get to the 'soul' of what was being played. Since then I have tried and still own several MC designs: Denon 103, Ortofon SPU, Ortofon MC200 and several EMTs.

EMT XSD-15 cartridge
My first 'serious' MC, bought after reading rave reviews in the then 'underground' press. Designed for no-nonsense professional use and then only fitted with a spherical tip, this cartridge ousted the Linn Asak cartridge I was using at the time, and is a cartridge I keep returning to, or its newer sister fitted with a fine line stylus. I knew I was onto a winner when my friends asked if I could remove the Asak and replace it with the EMT!

Ortofon MC200
My latest find. Short-lived by Ortofon and it never received great reviews, I am however delighted by this cartridge. Fitted with a fine-line stylus on a boron cantilever it does exactly what I want from a cartridge: neither showy nor dull, it just plays music with consumate ease, smooth, fluid and musical (something it shares with the SPU) and with the minimum of surface noise. This one is a keeper!

Breuer Dynamic Type 5A arm
Went out on a limb with this one, having been a die-hard SME fan. But it was receiving very good reviews and I was able to buy one, used, for a reasonable price. Nothing to look at, but having been hand built by a Swiss watchmaker the Breuer oozes quality. It has one of the lowest effective mass of any arm I have seen (only matched by the SME III and beaten by the Infinity 'Black Widow' and possibly the Transcriptors 'Fluid' arm), this arm is one of the fastest I have heard (by fast, I mean that all other arms I have heard sound slightly slow when it comes to transients). No longer made, its spirit lives on in the new generation Brinkmann arms - I have just acquired a Brinkmann 10.5, but have yet to install it on a TT.

Thorens TD124/II turntable
Acquired my first one just as Thorens were replacing it with the 125. An aspiration as it seemed to be the culmination of all that was good with idler drive decks. I started my hi-fi journey with a Garrard SP25 (a Mk. II, I think), then a refurbished Collaro 2020, but the Thorens 124 was my ambition. I now have three of them (as well as an EMT 930). There may well be better decks, but living with a Linn LP12 did nothing to change my mind. Spares for the Thorens are plentiful and readily obtainable, if expensive, but I'm still using the same original idler wheel and only change the belt every three years or so. No sign of wow and flutter and I can't hear what rumble there is.

Nagra IV-S portable reel-to-reel recorder
Travel is another one of my interests. The Nagra was an aspirational acquisition as I had intended to use it to record folk music from around the world during my travels. In the end, as I couldn't decide which were the best microphones to use, the machine is heavy and would need a plentiful supply of batteries, and since I like to travel light, I abandoned the idea. I still keep the Nagra to play back tapes I made on the Ferrograph and to occasionally record 'off air'.

Mark Levinson electronics
Been an ambition of mine ever since I read about them in the early '70s. Superbly well built with a 'cost no object' attitude, they did actually sound better than most. Hearing some of their gear at audio shows only reinforced my desire to have some, but I couldn't afford anything new from them at the time. An ambition now achieved - I have a pair of ML-2 monoblocks and three preamplifiers (oh - and the T-shirt!) I would love to hear the ML-6 'mono' preamps, but since the majority of my system is fully balanced, I doubt if I will.




And finally an item that infuenced me, but not in a positive sense: the Linn Isobarik speakers. These still remain to this day as being the worse speakers I have ever heard. Heard them twice, in two different venues, and on both occasions they sounded awful. Because of that I realised that most of what I had read about Linn products was hype and bullshit and I have never taken them seriously since. My loss maybe - I'm sure Linn make some good gear, but for me the damage has been done.

[pankon]

My revelation was the Croft SuperMicroII back in 1989. It just blew all competition away, irrespective of the price (i.e. even 3-5 times more expensive).
I am still enjoying it (with some upgrades since then).

[stevied]

Klyne 7 pre amp & a pair of stacked 57s

[killie99]

Impulse H2's.

I had been using Linn Kabers when I got the chance to buy a pair of H2's in 2002. On my nearly 40 years journey in HiFi this is the single biggest upgrade I have ever made, a true WOW moment. H2's were replaced in 2013 with Impulse Ta'us and in 2016 they were replaced with Monitor Audio PL300's. The MA's aren't necessarily better, just different.

[ff1d1l]

A Hi Fi shop owners own home system, mainly Quad using electrostatics, playing Osibisa when I was a teenager. Big Edinburgh new town room with round corners...Farkinelle....I was hooked.

Meridian M1's at Lintone Audio a few years later...bass guitar sounded like someone had plugged in and was playing along, in a good way.

A homebrewed system in South Africa, 3 ribbons along the Day Sequera lines, transmission line bass, Tannoy Autographs used as subs, driven mainly by a Radford STA 25. In a huge converted garage, this is still the best system I've ever heard by a considerable margin, and still the one I mentally measure up changes in my own system against. Not only capable of effortlessly imaging outside the speakers, it's party piece was imaging behind you, no kidding.

There might have been one or two Tannoy moments, too...I'm sure it can be imagined the kind of thing I'm talking about

[Macca]

A homebrewed system in South Africa, 3 ribbons along the Day Sequera lines, transmission line bass, Tannoy Autographs used as subs, driven mainly by a Radford STA 25. In a huge converted garage, this is still the best system I've ever heard by a considerable margin, and still the one I mentally measure up changes in my own system against. Not only capable of effortlessly imaging outside the speakers, it's party piece was imaging behind you, no kidding.

I guess this was an active set up? Analogue or digital?

[ff1d1l]

It was digital.
CD was Jolida and I believe the pre was Musical Fidelity. I think the magic was the speakers and the room. It wasn't active as such but possibly the Autographs had their own amp but can't exactly remember the configuration. Definitely no active crossover though.

Autos had HPDs in, that I do remember, and only the bass cone was driven. Not the lowest bass I've ever heard - he was an organ enthusiast - but very clean.

[icehockeyboy]

Klotz MC5000 - the end of expensive interconnects in my system.

Ditto.